23 December 2014

So when I first reported L07 and J06, the nice people who work on the trumpeter swan re-introduction emailed me back and asked if the third swan, the one with no wing tag, had a leg band. I didn't think so, but I hadn't taken a picture, so I couldn't be sure.

L07 Trumpeter Swan Cob, asleep on the beach

Unknown trumpeter swan asleep on the beach

And I am no more sure today, after remembering to take a picture. ("Let's go wake the swans up", aside from being less than ethical, also isn't safe. So we don't do that.)

J06 was further down the beach, honking malignantly at a bunch of seven mute swans. The mutes were looking baffled and uneasy; it can't be the sort of thing they're used to. And even trumpeter swans aren't that territorial in the winter. It might get a bit more exciting come springtime, when the trumpeter cobs spend so much time striving to remember how their distant, distant ancestors grew rending teeth.